Graveyard Promises

Graveyard Promises tells a complex, philosophical tale with an air of mystery. The writing is brilliant and flawless. Abell’s characters are so well fleshed out that we come to know them as real people. The gritty story is told in a wonderfully descriptive fashion, filled with a marvelous mastery of old school language and perfect grammar. The book is full of surprises, delighting the reader with an exquisite expressiveness of phrasing. Quite impressive indeed!—James A. Watkins, author of Jesus in the World: The First 600 Years

The full-throttled opening to Graveyard Promises captures interest and raises questions begging to be answered. Intrigue and subterfuge become a kind of currency as pieces to the mystery are parsed out in expertly measured portions that kept me wondering how everything fit together. A skillful storyteller, Abell satisfies curiosity while holding a total reveal at bay. He brings the Roaring Twenties to life with shady gangsters, enterprising barroom owners, duplicitous cops, and corruption of all kinds at every turn. Standing at the center, not so much a hero, but the moral core, is a hardnosed newsman who won’t allow an injustice to be covered up.—William D. Hastings, author of Behind Prison Walls and Candy & Blood

Graveyard Promises is the first installment of The Beadle Files, a hardboiled suspense series set in the Roaring Twenties. Prohibition is the law of the land. Social and economic fluctuations are sweeping across the country, and organized crime has become a volatile influence—it is the era of gangland infighting for territory and control of the flow of liquor.

The main character in the ensemble cast is LC Beadle, a World War I foreign correspondent who is now stateside in Durango, Colorado. Following a lead, the newspaperman gets caught up in a murder mystery that has conspiratorial undercurrents involving the Chicago rackets. Trouble or the threat of it is an ever-present reality leaping off the pages like an aggressive terrier.

Schemes and plotlines jump from the Backdoor Vault to Triad Medical to Rooster’s Barnyard to Jewel’s Tea & Spice Emporium to the Kilkenny Social Club. The narrative entwines around the life and times of a legendary lawman and his family. Supernatural elements are woven into the fabric of story arcs as the age-old war between good and evil continues unabated.

Despair is at odds with hope while hints of tragedy lurk in the shadows. The words of Yaz Lightfoot, a deeply spiritual Lakota Sioux man, serve as an overarching theme: “Justice demands the fidelity of principled men.”

Graveyard Promises will be released late winter or early spring 2018, and be available at AMAZON and WIPF & STOCK. Check back here for future updates.